Claire Grevedon: “Montréal CoWork witnessed my life’s turning point”
The strength of a journey sometimes comes through professional breaks and profound soul-searching. Hustle culture, the pandemic, burnout or even a loss of meaning in what we do: these moments of upheaval and these challenges are never insignificant. How can we make something of them? Claire Grevedon turned her personal experience into a strength and found her way towards a new profession: leadership and self-reconnection coach. This personal revelation blossomed within the walls of Montréal CoWork.
“My connection with Montréal CoWork is what changed my life,” Claire says cheerfully.
Her connection, and her history with the coworking space, now go back 4 years. “Montréal CoWork is like a family,” she explains. Today, Claire works as a life coach, specializing in leadership and reconnecting with oneself, as she likes to specify, but getting there was quite a journey and, above all, a turning point in her life.
Full of memories, she recalls a day in November 2021 when, in the “Konichiwa” room, she announced with tears in her eyes that she wanted to become a coach herself. She made this admission in front of Marine Vincent, her mentor at the time and founder of the Académie des Leaders, and the academy’s other members.
“At first, after questioning myself so much, I was clearly lost,” she acknowledges. Claire had changed agencies, was working enormously hard, and the weight of even more responsibilities was exhausting her. In September 2021, she sought the services of Marine, who was developing a program: the career accelerator.
“That program made me reconsider my entire life and brought this unconscious dream of becoming a coach to the surface,” she says. This weekly appointment at Montréal CoWork, held every Saturday for 7 weeks towards the end of the pandemic, was a breath of fresh air and marked a definite turning point. In November 2021, her decision was made: Claire resigned.
From strategy to reconnection
“Before, my work involved encouraging people to have, to own something. Today, my mission is to inspire people to be before having,” she shares with passion and conviction.
It is a passion she brings to everything she undertakes. For 10 years, Claire worked tirelessly in the media, communications and advertising industry. A very different world from what she does now. “I had several roles: media strategist and team manager; I was the go-to person for supporting clients,” she sums up.
Although her career began in Paris, working on the publishing side for Prisma Media, her professional path would undoubtedly be influenced by a six-month internship in Montréal in 2014. She fell in love with the city, an experience that, unbeknownst to her, would determine the rest of her journey.
Montréal: the turning point
“I fell in love with the city, the people, a creative energy, an energy for life,” Claire recalls. Back home, the desire to live in Quebec never left her. The wait lasted two years, but she stayed the course. “I turned down permanent positions, long-term contracts, in Paris because I felt in my gut that I had to return to Montréal,” she recounts.
In 2016, with a working holiday permit (PVT) in hand and no job, she left again, intending to start from scratch and with this little phrase in mind: “We’ll see how it goes.”
Claire discovered Quebec’s job market culture. Although she sent out numerous résumés, her job search stalled until one day her luck changed. “I sent lots of résumés and cover letters, and nothing came of it. I had two coffees and got two job opportunities,” she says with a laugh.
The accessibility and value of informal meetings seemed astonishing to Claire, but also highlighted the importance of networking and how to build a network to access opportunities in North America.
Before the pandemic, she worked as a media strategist for L’Oréal. It was an experience that pushed her to always be the best and allowed her to show what she could do. A specialist in business negotiations for several years, she drew on her experience and knew how to make a difference for her clients.
However, behind the professional challenge, overwork loomed, and she soon understood that her ambition was social rather than consumerist.
The pandemic hit and led to a pursuit of extreme productivity at the agency where she worked.
“COVID wasn’t a slowdown at all; on the contrary, it was an accelerator,” she explains. This work frenzy made her feel a disconnect between her values and what she was doing every day.
What she enjoyed doing then represented only 15% of what she did. The realization was brutal.
“One day, I woke up and couldn’t spend my day in back-to-back meetings behind Excel spreadsheets helping the client company sell more, always more. It wasn’t working for me anymore,” she declares.
Consumerism was consuming Claire. Wrapped up in a performance-driven society, she wanted to break that vicious cycle to catch her breath, reconnect with herself and inspire others.
This overload brought about a break and a question that had become vital: who she was and who she aspired to be. Four years later, life had changed. Her intuition about Montréal led her towards a professional and personal transformation she would never have imagined, but above all, towards alignment with herself.
In early 2024, she became a Montréal CoWork member, this time as an entrepreneur and PCC-certified professional coach. “It’s the place that has seen me blossom the most; it’s like my second home,” she acknowledges with a smile.
Today, her ambition is crystal clear: “to support people as they move towards the most beautiful and aligned life possible,” she explains.
While allowing ourselves to dream often opens the way to change, our personal breaks, like Claire’s and those of others, paradoxically also reveal the path towards ourselves and strengths we never suspected.
Find Claire’s podcast here: https://www.instagram.com/trouversaplace.podcast/
Article credit: Hélène Lequitte